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We're widely accredited for our work

It is our business to deliver legal services that work for our clients, you can trust our specialists to take care of things on your behalf. Over the years our firm has been recognised by industry awards and accredited for our excellence.

When managing contracts, we have found understanding the governance of an organisation to be key. Therefore, for some of the clients in the sector we have had a consultative role with their board, helping them to shape the governance of their organisations. We have several examples of our team acting as trustees and mentors. We are trustees for academies as well as mentors for a charities in the sector. Our Chairwoman is governor of a major leading college and our Head of Commercial, Jonathan Chadwick is a founding member of the Wigan Youth Zone. Given the depth of our experience in the field we have a detailed understanding of the specific challenges and opportunities you face in the sector.

Our approach is to develop a partnership, we provide relationship managers to work with you on contracts, we undertake under framework contracts so that economies of learning can occur. We aim to add value to our clients, Stephensons are used to supplying training to customers and we can work with you to develop an agreed scheduled training plan if required.

Stephensons believes in developing people, we were one of the first firms to embrace apprenticeship schemes. We work in connection with Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Manchester Metropolitan University. In the last year we have won an award for our work in this field. Investing in people and the communities in which we operate is at the heart of our firm’s ethos.

Debt collection

We have a dedicated team and carry out asset recovery as well as bulk debt collection using 4 stages:

Letter before action/ Letter of Claim

Issue legal proceedings

Judgment/enforcement

Bankruptcy/winding up

Human resources and environmental health & safety

We provided employment advice to the members National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA). The NDNA have over 3,000 members and we are their primary contact to advise on all aspects of employment related matters, including any regulatory matters.

Panel members (since 2009) of the Community Legal Advice helpline, handling thousands of calls per year

Defending discrimination cases on behalf of local authorities

Advising upon restructures/organisational changes

Advising on all aspects of TUPE​

Advising upon redundancies

Advising on variation to terms and conditions (including negotiation with trade unions)

Drafting terms and conditions, policies and procedures, including complex employment contracts and service agreements

Dealing with all aspects of health & safety (both in house and through subcontracted services)

Providing advice on recruitment and in-house HR advise and assistance

Advice on performance/capability issue employee management

Dealing with grievances

Dealing with disciplinary/dismissal issues

Defending all other types of Tribunal claims inc. unfair dismissal, all types of discrimination claims, wrongful dismissal and breach of contract etc.

Child care

Where a child lives – residence order

Arrangements for contact – contact order

Preventing a parent from doing something – prohibited steps order

Requiring someone to do something – specific issue order

Legal rights and restricting on those rights – parental responsibility

Children’s name – change of name

Children moving abroad or to another area of the country – international or national relocation